


All The King's Horses

by vacant houses (the_lost_robot)



Series: All the Strings of Your Heart [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Black Paladins AU, Body Horror, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Keith-Centric, Kuron lives, Kuron-centric, Shiro (Voltron) Has a Clone, Shiro has many clones, Shiro-centric, friendshieth, most of the clones survive, platonic-sheith, season six au, written as gen but can be viewed as sheith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 09:39:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15627930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_lost_robot/pseuds/vacant%20houses
Summary: "Keith?" he asks and his voice is identical to the man Keith was just speaking with. It's surreal to think that they all know him. Identical memories spread across each and everyone of them. Shiro's personality, his memories-It's a perversion. A violation of the very notion of what it is to be a person.But these people - and they were people, newborn and frightened and afraid- had never asked for this.OR:The clones survive.





	All The King's Horses

**Author's Note:**

> Please excuse how rough this is, I wanted to get this out before S7 murders us and haven't had a chance to clean it up at all and should have been asleep hours ago. I wanted to take the crack premise of 'the Shiro clones survive!' but treat it seriously and try to keep it as close to canon as possible. It turned out kinda dark but I will be watching S7 tomorrow with the thought of ‘This but a thousand additional Shiros.’ Who knows what’ll come out of it.
> 
> Also this fic is basically just 5k words of Shiro and Keith saying each other's name repeatedly and telling each other it's gonna be fine when everything is not okay. Which is basically canon so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

_"We are not going anywhere!"_

Keith has had two years to prepare for this moment and it's not enough. A lifetime would not be enough. Shiro's face is twisted in hate and his eyes are aglow with malevolent purple. His fist, lit up and weaponized, and he turns it on Keith, strikes at Keith -this is miles apart from any training spar - this is Shiro out for blood.

He's ruthless. He's relentless.

This is the Champion - the warrior the Galran arena had moulded out of one Takashi Shirogane, pilot of the Kerberos mission.

Keith has always been light on his toes but now he's pushed to his limits. It takes everything to keep up, keep just out of Shiro's reach and stay on the defensive while he tries to desperately get through to Shiro.

"Shiro," Keith pleads, ducking away from a glowing fist. His shield has taken too much damage from the first strike, it gives a half-hearted flicker before winking out completely and abandoning Keith to Shiro's ferocious onslaught. "We don't have to do this."

The words Shiro fires back are cruel, designed to barb Keith at his most weakest. In another time, another place, they would have succeeded. But Keith has had two years to armour himself for this fight, two years apart from Shiro and Voltron to stand on his own with his mother’s love and guidance. The trials of Marmora and both of Shiro's disappearance eons ago had also served as unwitting preperation too - he's already faced the prospects of Shiro abandoning him, lived the reality of absence in Keith's life.

He isn't about to give up on Shiro, not here, not now, not after everything Shiro has done for him.

But he doesn't know how to stop this fight either, without hurting one of them.

They're at an impasse, neither of their words reaching the other and Keith keeps dodging out of Shiro's way.

Keith ducks under a vicious strike, then has to block a kick with his forearm. His footwork is loose and he pays for it, the force of Shiro's kick pushes Keith back a couple of steps.

Keith's back smashes into a tube.

He's avoided thinking about the tanks and what's in them thus far. He can’t afford the distraction in this fight. As soon as he hits the pod with a crunch, Keith pushes himself off it to avoid another punch.

Shiro flies past him. Keith backs up another step, knowing that there will be another attack to follow up.

The tube lights up.

Shiro-

Shiro _pauses._

He doesn't push off immediately. For half a moment, the purple glow fades from his eyes. Then before Keith can figure out what's going on, it's back with a vengeance and Shiro leapt after Keith with a furious roar.

As Keith ducked back, parrying blows with his blade, his mind whirled. What was that? For a second, Shiro had stopped. What was it about the tank…?

Machinery groaned and clanked but it's all in the background. The quick paced battle dragged Keith away from that corner as he keeps blocking Shiro's attacks. There's bubbling, then the draining of liquid. Hydraulics wheeze through the air.

Something heavy flops onto the platform and Shiro freezes mid-strike, his fist inches away from Keith's face.

Immediately, Keith springs back to restore a safe distance between them. The violet light is flickering in and out of Shiro's eyes. Over his shoulder, Keith can see a pod is open- the one he'd smacked against- and its cargo is deposited in a groaning heap on the floor.

Shiro moans, hand flying to his head. "What-?" his voice lacks the harshness it had been twisted into, sounds foggy and slurred instead. "K-Keith?"

"Shiro?" it's hard to believe that maybe there's end to this gruesome battle but something is going on. Keith is proven right to be cautious when the purple light returns and Shiro charges forward to attack once more.

This time however Keith has hope and a plan.

He allows himself to be corralled across to the edge of the platform, where the tanks are stacked in a row. The moment there's a break in Shiro's attacks, Keith jams an elbow backwards into a pod, right on the control panel.

It brings Shiro up short again. "Enough!" he snarls. "You won't-" a hiss of pain cuts him off, the purple light fading again.

Keith chances a glance behind him at the rapidly draining tube. The clone inside is waking up, eyelids fluttering open.

Violet fades in and out of his eyes eerily synchronised to Shiro.

Maybe…?

While Shiro is distracted - Shiro or whoever is behind him pulling his strings- Keith runs and activates each tube as he moves across the edge of the platform, slapping his hand across the controls as he goes.

Shiro collapses to his knees. The first freed clone is groaning louder, hands on his head. Shiro shudders violently now, his eyes blaze brightly with that malevolent light. Purple energy lights up his metal arm and he gives a pained cry before crashing face first to the floor. He clutches his prosthetic which is - _changing- mutating-_

It's not good, whatever this is. Keith increases his pace, moving to the other end of the platform and activating the pods there.

Tank after tank drain with hisses and mechanical wheeze s. Eyelids flutter open but the glow is fainter with each activated pod, as if the more clones Keith wakes up, it diffuses some sort of signal. He doesn't think much about what he's doing, guided by instinct and hope.

With one final cry, Shiro goes silent and still in the centre of the platform. Keith slows to a jog and carefully circles back around Shiro.

Shiro's eyes are grey.

"Keith?" his name floats softly through the air. Shiro stumbles to his feet, still clutching his metal arm. The prosthetic is warped, it hangs unnaturally long off Shiro's body and the fingers have been twisted into claws. Spikes have erupted across its once smooth surface. But it isn't glowing anymore, neither is Shiro's eyes and Keith's gut feeling is that the danger has passed.

"I'm so sorry," Shiro gasps, voice thick with anguish. "I didn't want to - I couldn’t fight it-"

"It's okay," Keith  assures him, even though he knows it isn't, that there's nothing about this situation that could be considered alright.

Shiro swings his head around, taking in his huddled doppelgangers, shivering in their flimsy body suits and huddled on the floor. Keith wished he'd had the time to pull each one out gently, to catch them and lower them to the ground instead of allowing such a rude awakening to the world. But there hadn't been time. He didn't want to know what would have happened to Shiro's arm or to Shiro if he hadn't woken enough clones up to interrupt whatever changes were corrupting the prosthetic.

"Keith," Shiro says, eyes on the clones. "You have to know that I'm not...I'm not…"

Keith closed his eyes and took a breath to steady himself. He knows. He knows what Shiro can't bring himself to say even though the evidence is all around them. Since the start of the fight, he'd known.

"It's alright," he said and was surprised to realise that he meant it. Keith had activated some of the tubes without thinking about what the implications but now he realises he would have done it anyway, if he'd survived the fight with Shiro, even if they hadn't broken the hold of whatever was possessing Shiro. The clones didn't deserved to be left in there, they hadn't asked to be made. To leave them behind would be to subject them to the Galra and whatever foul plans they had. No one deserved that, and by their existence, the clones had already suffered greatly.

He wonders why so many had been made. It couldn't all just be to infiltrate Voltron. Was it because Shiro had proven himself in the arena, that he'd managed to come out on top of everything the Galra had thrown at him? Had the Galra seen his indomitable spirit and decided they'd make an army out of that?

"We'll figure it out."

The look in Shiro is lost and frightened. "The team-"

"One step at a time," Keith cut in. "We'll deal with them when we get back."

Shiro flinched and clutched his ruined arm tighter. "I don't - they're _dead_  Keith," he said in a small voice. "I uploaded a virus to the Castle of Lions to overload the teleduv before I escaped."

Terror blooms right through Keith. The team - Allura, Pidge, Lance, Hunk, Coran - they can't be gone. And Krolia, Romelle and Cosmo had still been aboard the castle.

It couldn't be.

No.

Keith shook his head. He wouldn't believe it until he saw it for himself. "They'll be okay," Keith replied with a hoarse voice. "They're smart. Pidge and Hunk will have figured it out." The assurance is weak but it's what Keith chooses to lean on for now to focus on the present. "What's important right now is helping _them._ "

Shock spreads across Shiro's face. "Keith, wait-!"

Keith strides forward to the first clone, the one they'd released accidentally. The man is shivering, the platform is exposed and he only has the bodysuit for warmth. But his head is turned in their direction and he watches Keith's approach with clear but frightened eyes.

"Keith?" he asks and his voice is identical to the man Keith was just speaking with. It's surreal to think that they all know him. Identical memories spread across each and everyone of them. Shiro's personality, his memories-

It's a perversion. A violation of the very notion of what it is to be a person.

But these people - and they were people, newborn and frightened and afraid- had never asked for this. The Galra Empire was to blame.

"Keith, what's going? Where are we? Who are they?"

And what could Keith say to that, to explain the enormity of the circumstances they were in? "It's alright," he soothed. "I know this is confusing, but you're safe right now. Can you stand? I'll help you up."

He reaches for the clone's hands and waits a moment for the man to either accept or reject the offered help. The clone grabs his hands and together, Keith pulls him upright. It's a strange moment, to stare at Shiro's face without the familiar white tuft or the slash across his nose. To hold his hands and both are warm with blood. No silver flashes at him and Keith realises, with a lurch in his stomach, that the Shiro in paladin armour on the platform somewhere behind him had been deliberately disfigured to match the wounds of another man.

The clone is unsteady on his legs but when he pushes Keith away, he doesn't fall. There's a determined look on his face and its aching familiar. Keith briefly glanced over his shoulder to the sight of Shiro helping another clone. Their heads are bent together and whatever words they exchange are far too quiet for Keith to hear.

It's a relief that Shiro had pitched in to help without further prodding.

"What's going on?" the clone Keith is with tries again. "Why does everyone here have my face?"

Quietly, Keith tells him, "This is a Galra cloning facility."

He wishes he could have hidden the truth as a wave of realisation and devastation washes over the clone. But there's no point in denying it, when the evidence is staring literally all around them.

"Oh," the clone says softly, looking down at his hands. A tremble runs through them and Keith grabs his hands again and gives them a squeeze.

"We'll figure it out, it's okay," Keith promises. "But right now, I need you to help me with the others. We can't stay here."

It's not much but the clone looks a little easier with being given something to do. "Alright,” he took a deep breath, closed his eyes to settle himself. “I can do that," he said and plodded past Shiro and the other clone, heading for the next tube down from them.

The other two men break up their whispered conversation then Shiro walked back to Keith as his charge joined the first clone in helping the others.

"I don't think we've got enough room to transport them all away from here," Shiro murmurs, eying the rings of tubes elevated above them that they haven't even touched. There's still the floor beneath them and it hurts Keith's heart to contemplate the branching wings with those distinctive round tubes stacked on them.

Surely some were empty.

Maybe.

"We're not leaving anyone behind," Keith replied firmly. "They're all getting out of here, each and every one of them."

Shiro examined him uneasily. "This isn't a good idea," he said, staring down at his corrupted arm. "What if she gains control again - of all of us?"

"She?" Keith inquired with a sharp tone.

"Zarkon's witch, Haggar," Shiro supplied unhappily. "This...all of it is her work."

Keith stared back at Shiro for a long moment. "I don't think she can," he replied slowly. "When they woke up, I think it splits her control. Spreads it out amongst all of you."

A bitter smile twists at Shiro's lips as they watch the clones help their brethren. "So, what, safety in numbers?"

"It's worked so far, hasn't it?" Keith replied.

"You can't trust me Keith," Shiro stated bleakly. "I tried to kill you. I killed the team."

They don't know if the team is dead but Keith doesn't say that. Instead, he looks at Shiro, at how small he stands, defeated. "Did you want to do it?" he asked bluntly.

Shiro made a shocked noise. "No, of course not!" he chocked. "I didn't- I tried to stop her but I wasn't enough. You can't rely on me."

"But you didn't want to do it," Keith held up a hand to stall the immediate protest. "You did your best, I know you did. I'm not saying it's okay because it's not but intent matters. What's important is that you _tried_. She had to force you to do it, Shiro."

The other man flinches. "That's not really my name. This was called Operation Kuron."

“I’m not calling you that,” Keith cut in vehemently. Shiro blinked. “You want to be called something else, that's fine but I'm not using anything Haggar picked."

The dread and self-loathing doesn't leave Shiro's face- not that Keith expects it to. He doesn't have the right words to get through and they both need time they don't have to process everything. Keith knows that he's only functioning right now due to a strong dose of denial about everything that's just happened and everything that's currently happening. But Keith has to make the attempt, these people are _alive,_ no matter their origin and he won't forfeit them here or leave them behind.

Recognising the stubborn set to Keith's face, Shiro relents and looks back to where they came him. "I'm going to see if there's another ship somewhere in this facility," he says instead. "They've got to have transported supplies and equipment here somehow." His eyes return to the remaining pods. "Be careful about getting them down from there," he murmurs softly.

A sickening drop lurks beneath those precariously thin platforms. Keith can barely fathom the design of this place. Maybe they'd been moved up there for storage? "I will," he assures Shiro. He jerks his head back to the cluster of clones. There's about ten of them free by now, up and moving. The number is only going to grow exponentially, there's still the long pathway Keith had walked across to get to the end of the platform and it had been lined with tubes on either side and he was pretty sure there was even another level beneath it. "Take a few of our new friends with you."

Shiro's face falls and darkens momentarily before he gives a nod. If Haggar's control is weakened by aggregating the clones, then there's a valid concern that she might be able to reassert herself if he goes off on his own alone. "Okay."

His fingers flex as Shiro's left arm jerks in an aborted attempted to give Keith a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. But the fight is still too fresh in both their minds, Keith stared back silently, unsure of what he'd do if Shiro had actually touched him. Shiro dropped his arm back, opened his mouth then closed it again, shook his head and hurried over to the centre of the platform.

Keith turned his focus back to the other tubes and tries not to wonder how the conversation went between Shiro and his duplicates. Instead, he climbs up carefully and starts activating the pods to release the clones inside. Now he can take his time, catching each identical man and gently brings them to the floor. He can wait until their legs are steady enough to let them go, answer their questions and watch as the confusion fades from their eyes, only to be replaced by deep hurt and determination.

It breaks his heart each time witnessing that moment. _This is a cloning facility_ , Keith tells them and the light and relief fades as each Shiro transitions from thinking they'd been rescued to the awful realisation that they aren't who they think they are. Keith does his best to reassure them and very deliberately doesn't think about what the team might think have a different opinion on what he should be doing here. They had been quick to assume the worst and give up on Shiro.

_"But Shiro's not Shiro anymore."_

He doesn't think about it. Instead, he lets his body fall into repetitive motion. Activate pod. Pull its occupant to the ground. Wait until they come to their senses, then break their world view. Rinse and repeat.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I've got you, we'll figure it out," he tells them, like it'll ever make up for it, then sends them off to help the others.

As he reaches the end of the first row, Keith makes an gruesome discovery.

The pod drains. The glass slides open. The clone slumps into Keith's waiting arms.

No warmth.

It takes a moment for the realisation to sink in. This body isn't shivering like the others. He can't hear the frantic, shuddering gasps for air or a strong heartbeat pounding away in its chest.

There's a corpse in Keith's arms.

His blood runs cold. Gently, he closes the eyes of the Shiro in his grip, then slowly lifts him up and places the body back into the tank and reseals it. Then Keith looks over to the next pod, where one of the helping clones is about to open it up.

Keith lunges forward. "Wait!" he calls and gently pushes the clone out of the way. It attracts the other Shiros attention to him and its surreal how they all stop and focus on him, all identical assessing gazes.

”What’s going on?” The Shiro asks.

Bile rises in Keith's stomach as his gestures for his helpers to back off. "Please, _wait_ ," he rasps. He activates the tank, dread building in his gut.

The body that lands in his arms is lifeless. He can tell the instant he touches the cold flesh. Keith closes his eyes, grief churning through him. He holds the body long enough while he tries to steady himself that it's obvious to the people watching that it isn't moving or breathing before Keith finally reseals it back in the pod.

”Fuck,” he hears someone breath in the background. There’s also the sound of puking. 

He looks over at the Shiro beside him, who is staring with horrified eyes. It's a look echoed across the platform. Pale faces, bloodless lips. How many, Keith wondered bleakly, had Haggar gone through, how many had ended up like this? "I'm sorry," Keith croaked, because what else could he say?

The Shiro he addresses is ashen but manages to gather himself. "What-what should we do?"

Keith swallowed and looks beyond the clone at the others, directing his voice to address them all. "Go back down. I'll...I'll take care of this."

It's a grim task but Keith can't comprehend asking them do it. Still, he isn't left alone - a handful of bolder Shiros remain to check on the remaining tanks. He thinks for a brief moment of insisting to do it himself but-it's...a lot. He isn't okay with this. Any of it. Handling bodies, Shiro's dead body, over and over-

Somewhere along the line, he dissociates and takes a step out of his own body. Ignores the number of tanks that get resealed with its occupant inside it. This lasts until a pod opens up two rows over with a startled cry. Keith snaps out of it, hurried over and finds a wide-eyed Shiro clutching a twitching body.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” the clone gasps as the duplicate in his arms seized with pain.

In a moment, Keith deliberates over what to do. “Put him back in the pod!” He dives forward and helps the clone wrestle the other back into the tank.

As soon as it closes, the body stills, calming down. Silence falls. Keith exchanges a look with the man in front of him and then around the group, finding himself the center of attention again.

“Leave the rest of them,” he instructs them and wishes he had the foresight to make the decision immediately after the first corpse so he could have spare them all the trauma.

“What are we going to do with them?” The Shiro besides him asks.

“We aren’t leaving them here,” Keith answers, deciding on spot and certain of that much. “We’ll take them with us. They…deserve to be buried. And the others, we’ll get them the medical care they need.”

It’s a subtle thing but the answer eased the clones. As Keith dropped back to the central platform, unwilling to linger near the pods with their gruesome cargo, one approaches and he has Keith’s helmet in his hands. It had been knocked off his head during the fight with Shiro and Keith hadn’t had the opportunity to retrieve it. He thanked the clone and immediately shucked it on his head to activate his comms.

Keeping busy is the only thing keeping Keith from fully feeling the horror that has been churning away at his gut since Shiro had attacked Hunk and Lance on the Castle’s bridge and then had escaped out to this facility.

“Shiro, how’s your search going?” He inquired and the question had a number of heads turning before realising they weren't the ones being addressed. “Did you find anything?”

The answer took a moment. “Yeah, we found a transport. Looks like it was used to haul cargo. We’ve been emptying it to make space. I'll bring it round in a sec, we're almost done here.”

Keith looked back at the full tanks and tries to picture moving them. He lowers his voice when he asks his next question. “Did you see anything that looks like it could move the pods?”

“Yeah,” Shiro replied. Some amusement filtered into his voice. “I think I saw a space fork-lift in one of the rooms. Why?”

Keith hated that what he had to say next was going to crush that show of humour. His mouth was unbearably dry and he swallowed with great difficulty around a lump in his throat. “Not every one of them survived." Over the comms, Keith listened as Shiro sucked in a sharp breath but otherwise did not interrupt. "I think some of them are hurt too and will need medical attention before they can be released from the pods.” 

Silence reigned over the comms. Shiro was probably composing himself after hearing the grisly news. "I'm sending some of my helpers back to you with the fork-lifts. They'll be there soon."

Keith nodded absently, even though Shiro couldn't see the gesture. "Roger that, I'm going to check on the Black Lion," he said. He didn't add that it was to check whether the Lion could pick up the Castle ship but he could almost feel the tension Shiro had to be radiating over the comms. It sounded like things were under control for the moment, so Keith figured now was the time to check in with the rest of the team, if he could.

"I...let me know if you hear anything." Abruptly, Shiro closed the line and Keith couldn't blame him.

He grabbed the Shiro closest to him and laid out instructions of what was going on before Keith finally was able to escape from this blasted platform and the terrible secrets it had kept hidden for who knows how long. He jogged back to the elevator and waited impatiently for it to reach the surface then sprinted for the Black Lion.

The Lion lowered its barrier and head at Keith's approach. He stepped into the cockpit and immediately activated the comm systems and long range scanners. As he waited to pick up the Castle's frequency, his eyes swept over the scanners to keep anxiety from building by dwelling on whether Shiro had been telling the truth or not about the virus he'd uploaded.

Wait. His eyes caught on the scanners.

Was that-?

At the same time, the Lion made a connection with the Castle. "Hailing the Castle of Lions, this is Keith," he said, hoping that someone was on the bridge and would answer.

He was answered by Lance and Allura's voices.

"It's Keith, he's okay!"

"Where've you been? Did you get Shiro?"

Keith hesitates as he opens the channel up to Shiro. He doesn't want to let him linger for a second longer than he has too with the notion that he'd killed the team. What a loaded question. "It's complicated," Keith settles on, which is an understatement but not the most important thing right now. "I'll explain everything later but right now, you need to focus on Lotor. I've picked up the Sincline ships on my scanners. Looks like Lotor's headed back to your position."

"He needs to get back into the quintessence field," Allura replies.

Keith took a deep breath and stared down at the console. He was torn - there were so many people here that needed his help - _Shiro_ needed his help. But the team needed the Black Lion too and they needed to keep Lotor out of the quintessence field. Who knew what he could do if he gained access to it again, what danger he could present.

Over the comns, Shiro said nothing.

This decision was his alone.

Keith grit his teeth before relenting. "I'll be on my way to you. But without a wormhole, it's gonna take me a while. You'll have to hold off Lotor without me."

"We'll do what we can," Lance replied and the line closed.

A blip rapidly approached on the Lion's scanner. The cargo ship Shiro had mentioned. He set it down beside the Black Lion as Keith ducked out of the cockpit. The ship had barely touched down before Shiro's form appeared, bolting for the mouth of the Black Lion, a couple of clones at his heel.

"You've got to go," Shiro gasped as soon as he was close. His face was pale but he gave Keith a tight smile. Despite the reassurance though, dread burned its way through Keith's gut at the idea of separating and leaving them here. What if Haggar did something to them and he wasn't around to help? Keith can see the resignation and misery on Shiro, that despite his efforts to appear stoic, he looks terrified. "Stop Lotor, I'll follow you and get them out of here."

Keith needs to go. He knows this. But his feet are glued to the Lion's ramp, suddenly certain that if he leaves, he'll never see Shiro or any of the clones again. That they'll disappear into the ether, either by Haggar's dark magic or Shiro's overblown sense of responsibility and guilt convinces him that he needs to be kept away from the team for everyone's safety.

He has to say something to make Shiro keep to his word. Keith digs around and settles on something that he knows is safe, something that he's said before, even if it was what turned out to be a hologram instead.

"Shiro, you're my brother."

His dread builds when that fails to get a response. Keith frowns. He need to try harder, really get through to Shiro, make sure he understands how important he is to Keith, no matter what shape or form, how utterly irreplaceable he is in Keith's life. The words he find this times, he drags from the depth of his core.

"I love you."

Shiro gapes. Shock spreads across his face. It's a look shared by the clones behind him and there's so much hurt and _pain-_

"You shouldn't- I'm not-"

"Shiro," Keith grabbed both hands, even the deformed Galra prosthetic and stared him down. There's a rock stuck in his throat but he swallows it down and keeps talking, wearing his heart on his sleeve. The sheer vulnerability of baring his emotions chafes at him but he'll do it if it'll bring Shiro back to him. "I love you. Catch up to me, alright?"

With that, he pulled himself away and back into the Black Lion. He grabs the controls and as soon as he sees that the ramp is clear, he takes off, leaving the cloning facility behind. It quickly dwindles in the distance behind him, looks almost innocuous, as though there isn't a laboratory full of nightmares and misery and so, so much life inside it.

Keith stares ahead into the vastness of space and the long trip of ahead of him. He's not going to make it on time to stop Lotor. He can feel the Black Lion's aches and pains, a faint discordant hum from the usually quiet machine.

"Come on Black," he murmurs and the Lion rumbles back. "We'll get there. They just need to hold out for us."

The minutes tick by. He watches as stars and planets wink in and out of view. Hopes that Shiro managed to load the transport ship full of clones and that none had been left behind. Hopes that they are somewhere behind him, following the same path.

He can tell the moment Lotor arrives and the situation delves into a fight. The Lion's comms systems activate, there are shouts and battle cries from the rest of the team as they clash with the Sincline ships.

"Come on, come on," he urges Black, even though he knows its futile, that the Lion is doing its best.

The Lion rumbles again. A sudden wave of exhaustion pressed down on Keith. He fought to keep his eyes open. He couldn't fall asleep at a time like this! Not when he could hear Lance, Allura, Pidge and Hunk yelling orders and exchanging tactics to each other over the comms. Not now, when the team was in a fight for their life.

Despite his efforts, his eyelids droop.

_Keith._

Initially, he thinks it's Shiro's voice over the comm line. But the Black Lion's cockpit has vanished in between one moment and the next. Keith stands on a black and purple plane with a backdrop of constellations that didn't match the ones he'd been travelling through only a heartbeat ago.

_Keith?_

Shiro stands before him, wreathed in a purple glow. The color gives Keith some small alarm and he examines Shiro cautiously. But the other man is far enough away that he isn't an immediate threat. His eyes are kind in a way they haven't been in a long time, recently they've been too twisted up in pain. He looks a little different as well, but Keith can't pinpoint exactly what has changed, too busy drinking in the sight.

"What is this place? Where are we?" he asks.

"This is the astral realm inside the Black Lion," Shiro replied. His tone was slow and measured, like every word took a great deal of concentration. He showed none of the terror he had back at the cloning facility but there still was a bone-deep sadness in him. "Since my fight with Zarkon, I've been here."

Since the fight with Zarkon-?

Shiro's second disappearance.

"You've been here," Keith breathed. He walked forward, relieved and no longer afraid. "All this time, I've been looking all over for-"

"I died, Keith,"  Shiro interrupted and Keith froze, horrified, mid-step.

After all this, after everything, Shiro was-?

Numbly he listened as Shiro outlined how the Lion had preserved him, that his physical form was gone, destroyed in that battle with Zarkon. How he tried to warn the rest of the team on Olkarion about the Shiro that was them in his place. All that time, he'd been here. Shiro had been here, where no one would have ever thought to look because- because-

It seemed like a cosmic joke. In the real world, there were scores of men, carrying Shiro's face, his memories, his personality. Alive, they were alive and he didn't begrudge them for that but Shiro himself _was dead_. 

"You can get to the team," Shiro told him in that eternally patient tone. He reached out and placed his hand on Keith's shoulder. Even now, he was focussed on the task at hand while Keith reeled and tried to find his footing in this new, dreadful universe. "But you must see them first."

It took effort to drag Keith away from the realisation that Shiro was gone and that Lotor still needed to be dealt with. "But how do I do that?"

"See through the Lion's eyes. Patience yields focus."

It was a lifetime ago since Keith had heard the phrase. He seeks comfort in the familiar words, allowing them to ease his mind and centre himself. A sun burns brightly in front of him. Keith eyes flash with blue light.

Time and space folds in front of him. The universe unravels, spilling each and every secret. His hands curl around the Black Lion's control and there's warmth in them, like Shiro has placed his own hands on top of them.

_"I see them."_

Afterwards, after the fight with Lotor, which had dragged them into the quintessence field only to leave Lotor there then sacrifice the Castle ship to fix the all the tears in the fabric of reality, Keith settles himself back in the Black Lion's cockpit, Krolia and Cosmo by his side. It's strange, he thinks tiredly. All this time, he's been sitting in the place that Shiro had died. He'd been searching so far and wide, when Shiro had been right next to him.

The team hasn't had a chance to ask about their missing paladin yet. There had been too much to do, what with having to strip the Castle of all their precious belongings on such short notice. Keith doesn't know what he's going to tell them.

The world fades out and gains a distinctive purple tinge.

 _Tell them the truth,_ he hears a whisper. Keith thinks of the clones, the one that had been within the team's midst for months on end, living with them in another man's place, and those frightened faces he had pulled from the tanks.

Complicated had been an understatement.

 _There must be something we can do for you,_ Keith replied. The astral plane is eerily empty this time, the stars depleted from its sky. He can't see Shiro, no matter how hard he looks but he can also feel the Black Lion's sheer exhaustion.

 _It'll be okay,_ Shiro tells him. _We'll figure it out._

**Author's Note:**

> Team Voltron lands on a nearby planet to recover. Five minutes later, Kuron-Shiro rocks up with his bus full of Shiros.
> 
> Everyone: Keith, WTF did you do


End file.
